The Serica Website

SERICA is the website of the Australian project team participating in the international project "China and the Ancient Mediterranean World". This is an official project of the International Union of Academies which aims to foster research collaboration between Ancient Historians and Classical scholars in China and those in the more developed world. While the project will focus on both the literary and archaeological evidence on cultural, commercial and religious contacts between the Romano-Byzantine Empire and China, the Australian team will concentrate on the analysis of Greek, Latin, Middle Iranian, Syriac and Chinese texts on the historical geography of Central Asia and on the diffusion of 'Western' religions. The Australian team is funded by the Australian Research Council (DP1093687, 2010-2012) and SERICA will also function as the official website of the project.

The title-page of website displays in the background a medieval reproduction of one of the maps (XXIII) on Central Asia from the Geographica Claudius Ptolemy by courtesy of the National Library of Naples.